The Beverly Hills Police Department is investigating a hate crime after an anti-Semitic message was spray-painted on a Holocaust survivor’s apartment building in the wake of the terror attack on Israel.
The police are searching for the person who left the message reading ‘kill Jews’ and believe that the same person spray-painted similar messages around the city.
The anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered on Wednesday outside the Bedford Manor apartment building in Beverly Hills, California, a residence where 60 percent of the tenants are Jewish.
Klara Firestone, the manager of the building, said: ‘It’s just terribly emotional and it’s frightening to know that it’s happening in my own home – literally in my own home,’ in an interview with ABC7.
‘People who don’t like Jews don’t care whether you’re old, you’re young, you’re a grandmother,’ said Firestone. ‘They don’t care.’
Firestone lives in the building with her 99-year-old mother, Renee Firestone, who survived the holocaust and moved to the US in 1948.
Klara Firestone (pictured) lives in the building with her 99-year-old mother, Renee Firestone, who survived the holocaust and moved to the US in 1948
A message reading ‘kill Jews’ was left outside a Holocaust survivor’s building Wednesday in Beverly Hills, California
Around 60 percent tenants in the building in Beverly Hills are Jewish, the manager said
Firestone’s grandmother died in Auschwitz after being sent straight to the gas chambers.
‘I wear a Jewish star and make no bones about who I am and what I am,’ Firestone told CBS news.
The Beverly Hill police received the other report of vandalism one mile from the apartment later that day.
‘The suspect(s) in both cases appear to be related based on verbiage, style and color of the spray paint,’ police said in a statement.
Anti-Semitic messages were left in large green letters on walls as police were searching the area for clues.
Both incidents are being investigated as hate crimes, police said.
Workers have since painted over the anti-Semitic message on the holocaust survivor’s building.
A family photo shared by Firestone shows three dozens of people at a wedding before the holocaust. Nearly all of them were killed
Workers have painted over the anti-Semitic message on the holocaust survivor’s building as of Thursday
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Anti-Semitic messages were left in large green letters on walls as police were searching the area for clues
Firestone and her neighbors are devastated after they saw the graffiti, two weeks after the terrorist attack claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Israelis.
‘As a human being anytime hates you it hurts,’ said Firestone. ‘Hate me for something I did, not for who I am because I can’t change that.’
She said she would not show the anti-Semitic message to her mother and said ‘thankfully she is not as aware as she could be’ with what’s happening around the world.
‘That’s really what stings – that the world has not learned the lessons and has not changed one iota,’ she said. ‘There are still those that would relish my demise and dance on my grave.’
A family photo shared by Firestone shows three dozens of people at a wedding before the holocaust. Nearly all of them were killed, she said.
The Beverly Hills Police Department said it has received three reports of anti-Semitic incidents this week. It’s not known whether they are connected.
Protestors could be heard chanting: ‘No more weapons, no more war. Ceasefire is what we’re fighting for’
Spray-painted messages such as ‘Zionism equals Racism’ and ‘Israel is Fascist’ began appearing on the sidewalks of Cornell University’s upstate New York campus on Wednesday
It’s been two weeks since Hamas launched its devastating assault on Israel and tensions in the region are still rising as the terrorist organization reported clashes with IDF Friday.
Anti-Semitic messages, symbols, and graffiti have been reported at demonstrations, college campuses, and in neighborhoods across the country.
Pro-Palestinian protestors were arrested Friday while calling for a Gaza ceasefire as hundreds stormed Grand Central.
Earlier this week, messages reading ‘Israel is Fascist,’ ‘Zionism equals Racism,’ ‘Free Palestine,’ and ‘F**k Israel,’ appeared at Cornell University.
A NYU students held up anti-Semitic ‘keep the world clean’ signs in the heart of Manhattan during the ‘walkout’ protest that was organized by Ryna Workman, a law student who previously called Hamas’ attack on Israel ‘necessary’.
After seeing the series of increasing hatred towards Jews and Israel around the country, Firestone said she hopes people who committed the acts could visit the Holocaust Museum to learn about Jews have endured.
She wants the police to find the person who left the graffiti, not to face potential criminal consequences, but to understand the true meaning behind those words.
‘I think that this global conflict now, in the Middle East, certainly has polarized everybody,’ Firestone said. ‘It’s a human issue. It’s a civil society issue.’
‘I want you to go and see who it is you’re doing this against,’ said Firestone. ‘Stop and think about ‘Why do I hate these people?’
